ABUJA — The Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has let the public in on the chances of the party in the 2023 presidential election and its plans if elected to lead Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, the founder of Baze University, made the disclosure during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today late Friday.
The former senator dismissed claims that social media mobilisations would not translate to electoral success for the party in the 2023 presidential election.
“Go and start looking at the bookings of major European airlines into Nigeria,” Baba-Ahmed said. “Not during Christmas time. After Christmas time. Late January to the third week of February. You will see that they are getting full. Unusually. I’m into the business of data and statistics. And I decided to particularly look at that.
“This tells you that social media is going to vote. Even if they are in Antarctica, one person is there and he mobilises 100,000 people here to go out and vote. It has succeeded.
“We are not scared. The bank balance of any big politician is starting to be irrelevant. Those of us who sweated for the little that we have, we are spending it very wisely and carefully.
“Those of them who made it from government, who will just open the coffers and bring it out; they will continue to splash it and it will continue to mean less and less.”
He also assured that he and the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi, will not bring their relatives into the government if elected in 2023 to lead Nigeria. This, according to him, is because they are not interested in benefitting from government.
“Governor Peter Obi and I are not interested in benefiting. All the people we are going to bring on board, we will not bring our relatives and cousins and nephews to run a government. We will not do that. Let Nigerians’ money work for Nigerians,” he said.
In another interview with BBC Hausa, Baba-Ahmed stated the 2023 elections is about who is capable, not the other way round, charging Nigerians to elect leaders irrespective of religious or ethnic differences.
“God doesn’t make mistakes in making us in different religions, it’s His will to see us that way. We are not contesting for leadership in any religion, we are contesting for presidency, so I see no reason for considering religion,” he said.
On why he agreed to be Obi’s running mate, he remarked: “What Nigeria needs for now is to rescue it from total collapse, therefore, Obi gave me convincing reasons after observing his character and capacity to do the job.”
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) declared Baba-Ahmed, a 48-year-old academic and former senator, his running mate during a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
Describing Baba-Ahmed as a recognised wealth creator and manager who fits well into the mold of a transformative and adaptive leader, Obi said Baba-Ahmed brings to the rescue mission great personal, academic, and entrepreneurial strengths, as well as impeccable credentials with the added value of rich experience as an academician, businessman, public servant, economic and development expert, and politician.
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